Many changes are taking place in the way wireless communication networks are being deployed. Some of the changes are being driven by the adoption of new mobile communications standards. The introduction of software defined radios to wireless telecommunications has led to the generation of software and hardware solutions to meet the new standards. Current mobile communication standards introduce physical and logical channels and pose new issues in the transport of information within the communication networks.
A software defined radio (SDR) uses software for the modulation and demodulation of radio signals. The use of reprogrammable software allows key radio parameters, such as frequency and modulation protocols to be modified without the need to alter the underlying hardware of the system. Additionally, SDRs allow a single device to support multiple configurations which previously would have required multiple hardware devices. One example of a software defined radio is the Vanu Software Radio produced by Vanu, Inc. (See U.S. Pat. No. 6,654,428).
One problem with current mobile communication standards is the number of distinct modulation standards that may be in use within a geographic region and the ability for wireless communication network providers to adapt their network hardware for the various protocols. Current modulation standards that a wireless communication network may operate with includes, but is not limited to, Advanced Mobile Phone System (AMPS), code division multiple access (CDMA), Wide-band CDMA (WCDMA), time division multiple access (TDMA), Global System for Mobile communications (GSM), Cellular Digital Packet Data (CDPD), Enhanced Data rates for GSM Evolution (EDGE), General Packet Radio Service (GPRS), Integrated Digital Enhanced Network (iDEN), and Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM). Purchasing hardware designed to operate with only a single standard results in idle resources at times when network demand for that modulation standard is low. To avoid the expenses associated with operating and maintaining hardware dedicated to each standard, there is a need in the art today for communications network hardware that is modulation standard independent and can be dynamically reconfigured to support modulation standards based on the current demands on the network and operate with multiple standards simultaneously.
Another problem is that wireless communication transmissions are no longer limited to voice data, but now carry a spectrum of data from text messaging to real time streaming video from the Internet. Communications such as streaming video require significantly more bandwidth than transmitting a text message. However, when a logical channel is configured to support wide bandwidth communication data, available bandwidth is wasted when that same channel is used to carry lower bandwidth communications data (e.g. a short text message). There is a need in the art today for communication network hardware which has the ability to dynamically allocate radio bandwidth based on the type of data being transmitted.
For the reasons stated above, and for other reasons stated below that will become apparent to those skilled in the art upon reading and understanding the present specification, there is a need in the telecommunications industry for solutions for implementing dynamic protocol reconfiguration and dynamic bandwidth reallocation for software defined radios.